Cardinals fall to Bears 28-0

By Trevor Dunnell/Daily News Correspondent

Published: Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 09:40 AM.

The Cardinals would fumble the ball on their first play of their second drive, but Jacksonville linebacker Nathan Ellerbee recovered a New Bern fumble almost immediately after to help limit the Bears for the next two quarters.

The Cardinals’ biggest gain of the game came when punter Warren Washington mishandled the snap, but eluded the New Bern defense for a 23-yard run that gave Jacksonville a first down to start the second quarter.

Jacksonville would have to punt later in the possession.

New Bern penalties gave Jacksonville great field position throughout the second and third quarters, but the Cardinals did not take advantage.

Jacksonville quarterback Exelman Adams was sacked three times in the first half. Adams did not start the second half after taking a vicious hit but returned in the fourth quarter, only to get taken out again after another hard knock.

“He (Adams) has been going with our first string once we lost Vincent Siders and we have sort of handicapped the offense, but we have made strides a couple of days,” Williams said. “And then we’ll turn around on other days and mess up. Right now at the quarterback position we are taking two steps forward and one step back and we just need to get better there.”

New Bern allowed Jacksonville to keep it close as the Bears committed four penalties for 40 yards, two of which were unsportsmanlike conduct fouls.

Before Jacksonville entered Friday night’s nonconference game with defending state 4-A champion New Bern, the Cardinals had only allowed 23 points total in their first three games.

New Bern more than matched that in handing Jacksonville its first loss of the season as the Bears defeated the Cardinals 28-0.

Jacksonville (3-1) entered ranked No. 9 in The Associated Press 3-A poll. The Bears, who won their last meeting with the Cardinals in 2002, moved to 2-2.

“They just kind of jumped on us early in being big bad New Bern and we just let it happen,” Jacksonville coach Beau Williams said. “In the second and third quarter we didn’t really change a whole lot but the difference was our kids just started playing.”

New Bern came out swinging, while Jacksonville looked a little shaky in the first quarter.

The Bears returned the opening kickoff to the Cardinals’ 48-yard line. After a couple of big runs, quarterback Mike Hughes scored on a 5-yard touchdown run to give New Bern a 7-0 lead with just 1:50 off the clock.

Jacksonville punted on its first possession, setting up another Hughes touchdown. Hughes scored on an 8-yard run to push the lead to 14-0.

The Cardinals would fumble the ball on their first play of their second drive, but Jacksonville linebacker Nathan Ellerbee recovered a New Bern fumble almost immediately after to help limit the Bears for the next two quarters.

The Cardinals’ biggest gain of the game came when punter Warren Washington mishandled the snap, but eluded the New Bern defense for a 23-yard run that gave Jacksonville a first down to start the second quarter.

Jacksonville would have to punt later in the possession.

New Bern penalties gave Jacksonville great field position throughout the second and third quarters, but the Cardinals did not take advantage.

Jacksonville quarterback Exelman Adams was sacked three times in the first half. Adams did not start the second half after taking a vicious hit but returned in the fourth quarter, only to get taken out again after another hard knock.

“He (Adams) has been going with our first string once we lost Vincent Siders and we have sort of handicapped the offense, but we have made strides a couple of days,” Williams said. “And then we’ll turn around on other days and mess up. Right now at the quarterback position we are taking two steps forward and one step back and we just need to get better there.”

New Bern allowed Jacksonville to keep it close as the Bears committed four penalties for 40 yards, two of which were unsportsmanlike conduct fouls.

“We have to be mentally prepared and not make mistakes with all those penalties,” New Bern coach Bobby Curlings said. “Some of them, if it is just aggression then we can live with that because you want your guys to be aggressive, but when it is just stupidity we can’t have that because it is going to cost us in the long run.”

New Bern’s Cody Purdie led all rushers with 194 yards.

“This one was a big hurt for us,” Williams said. “I thought we were ready to play in this big game and obviously we weren’t and tonight we just didn’t play well. I’ll take the blame for it. We didn’t prepare them and we just have to get them ready.”